Having watched the anime version of Jigoku Shoujo prior to the drama remake, I had my reservations about this version for a couple of reasons. First of all, being quite familiar with the story would mean that I would know how the story progresses. And this bothered me in the first 10 minutes of this episode because I knew exactly that the story was rehashed from the first episode of the anime. Although it comes with a different title i.e. the anime's first episode's title was Yuyami no Kanata Yori (From the Other Side of Twilight) and the setting was slightly tweaked, I couldn't help but feel bored initially. In the drama, the main character for this episode is a senior high student who gets bullied by 3 girls because of her securing a place in university due to the school's recommndation. However, in the anime, the bullied girl was a junior high student who was bullied without any special agenda right in the beginning.
Well, given that the drama and the anime is essentially based on the original manga, it's inevitable that they will show the same stories. However, the drama has only 12 episodes as indicated on the official website so I'm hoping that the selection of the stories to be featured will be done with caution so that they do not end up boring the viewers. As it is, episodic stories without much advancement in the main plot would tend to be repetitive so I'm quite glad to see that they will introduce Shibata Hajime and Tsugumi from Ep 3. These two characters will be of great importance in unravelling the mystery behind Enma Ai's background.Initially, I was also worried that the story would be over-stretched if it spans 45 minutes like the usual dramas but it was good that they kept it short and sweet at less than 30 minutes just like the anime.
Besides the similarities, the cast selection is also something which I couldn't help comparing. First of all, Iwata Sayuri who plays Enma Ai sounds so close to Noto Mamiko, the seiyuu who plays Ai in the anime. I wonder if her original voice is like that or whether she was trying to sound close to Noto's voice. In any case, I must say that I prefer Noto's voice though. Iwata sounds too squeaky and high-pitched for my liking. Appearance-wise, Iwata does look quite close to the Ai in the anime and the mannerisms were similar so I guess it's largely due to her own effort and the production crew in trying to stick to the original. Nevertheless, since her appearance airtime is too little, I think I won't write her off completely until a few more episodes later.
With regards to her subordinates namely Ichimoku Ren (Kato Kazuki), Hone-Onna (Sugimoto Aya) and Wanyuudou (Ogura Hisahiro), I feel that they do resemble the original characters to a certain extent, at least in terms of their images. However, just like Ai, their appearances are very limited so it doesn't show as yet whether they can convey the distinctive traits of their characters. Among them, I think Sugimoto looks so close to Hone-Onna especially the feminine and sexy side of her so I think she's perfect for this role.
Last but not least, an issue I have with the drama adaptation is the way the punishment is meted out. In the anime, the producers have the luxury of CG to design elaborate punishments which is one of the highlights in the story but in the drama, the manner it was done proved to be plain and it was over in a matter of less than 3 minutes. What an anti-climax it proved to be! The sight of Ren and Hone-Onna carrying the girl who was to be sent to hell just made me chuckle about their lack of "resources".I'll probably continue to watch this for a couple of episodes before deciding whether this is worth my time to stay throughout the entire run. Unless the repetition gets to me or I do not see any improvements in the storyline, I think it's likely that I can bear with the differences with the anime or any little issues I have with the drama adaptation.
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